Yearsley Group admits the closure of the Birds Eye depot in Hull could lead to redundancies among its drivers – but says it will attempt to redeploy them.
The frozen foods business, which was sold to venture capitalist Permira in September 2006, is to close its Hull plant this September with the loss of 600 jobs.
Most of the production will be relocated to Bremerhaven in Germany but the company’s depot in Lowestoft, Suffolk will also take up some of the work.
The GMB union has expressed anger over the "pure cynicism" of Birds Eye’s previous owner, Unilever, which had given the workforce an assurance that jobs and terms and conditions would be maintained for three years.
Yearsley Group, which took over the distribution for Birds Eye when Celsius First went into administration last March, originally said it wouldn’t be affected by the sale. But contract manager Geoff Herring now says he will know in a month’s time what will happen to about 10 drivers currently working out of Hull on the contract.
"We’re looking at other areas within the business where we can use them," he explains.
"It’s just a matter of looking at the demands [of the contract] and we’ve been called upon to address some of those. We have an operation in Grimsby too."
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